Collection Online as of January 28, 2023

Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325–1389) (verso)

1575–76

Part of a set. See all set records

calligraphy by

Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi

(Persian, active mid- to late 1500s)

Persian, Uzbekistan, Bukhara

Ink and opaque watercolor with gold on paper, illuminated calligraphy (verso)

Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.347.b

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The work was part of an album of paintings collected in India before 1811 by a Scottish politician who worked for the British East India Company.

Description

This fine calligraphic work is signed and dated by a calligrapher who was highly regarded in both Safavid Iran and Mughal India. Mughal albums typically had a painted portrait or figural scene on one side, and a work of calligraphy on the other. The British civil servant Sir Charles Forbes made his album following that format.

The verses are a lament over a lack of wine, beginning:
For some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us,
Gone away to tend to her own affairs.
Be alert and prepared as a search party.
Her dress is of rubies, and she wears a tiara of delicate glass.

Inscriptions

Inscription

In center, Persian exercises including on the second line down the “abjad” letters of numeration followed by calligrapher’s signature, in nasta‘liq script: Done by the hand of the sinful slave Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi, may God forgive his sins, in the year 982

Inscription

Persian verses above from a ghazal of Hafiz (Persian, 1325–1389), in nasta‘liq script: For some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us,/ Gone away to tend to her own affairs. Be alert and prepared (as a search party)./ Her dress is of rubies and she wears a tiara of delicate glass./ She carries off wisdom and knowledge. Till you feel safe and secure from her, remain alert!/ Whoever will bring her bitter presence to me, I will give him sweet confectionaries (halwa) in exchange,/ And should she be hiding in disguise in the underworld, go down (and seek her out)/ The daughter of the dark-colored (vine) is quick-tempered, petulant, rose-colored and drunk./ Should you find her, take her towards Hafiz’s house.

Inscription

Persian verses below, continued from above, in nasta‘liq script: I saw her last night, sauntering and tipsy./ A cup in hand, she was heading towards a gathering of the drunk/ I was so vexed that my poetic powers/ Became distraught and fled away from me/ She was harboring thoughts of Khwarazm and the shores of the Oxus/ With a thousand complaints she was leaving the Kingdom of Solomon/ Gone would be the person who knew the very soul of poetry as no one else./ I was witnessing this and my soul was seeping out of my body/ I protested and much lamented but to no avail/ For this was a matter for the Sultan’s compassion to tend.

Provenance

before 1811-1849

Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet [1773-1849], Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes

?-1962

Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901-1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale

December 10, 1962

(Sotheby’s, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 10 December 1962, lot 25, sold to Ralph Benkaim)

1962-2013

Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

2013-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Exhibition history

Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).